Ndlambe municipality has been confronted by drought for more than five years. As a result of that COGTA declared it a disaster area. One of the options that could mitigate the impact of drought was to establish an RO plant which can give us 5ML (2ML seawater + 3 reuse water). An amount of R100 million was received from the Department of water and Sanitation and COGTA. A tender was made and QFS was appointed. However that was challenged by a company called MEB. The high court ordered that the tender be nullified and be started from scratch.
The tender was restarted and once again QFS was awarded the tender. One of the allegations MEB made was the issue of an SMME claiming that he wanted the 1 million rand for facilitating and the municipal manager would share it amongst the members of committee which amongst them were the directors.
When evidence was requested he could not produce any. The other one was the issue of a R20 million which was paid to QFS by the municipality bridging the Department of Water and Sanitation funding which was not ready at the time. The Department of Water and Sanitation paid back the money to the municipality later. In fact given the state of affairs at that time with regard to the water shortage a delay by a day was too long.
What surprised everybody was the fact the MEB did not tender in the second round. The procurement processes with regards to bid committees was beefed up by officials from the Dept. Of Water and Sanitation who were experts in water issues. This was done by the MM to achieve high level of transparency and credibility to the process as there was a possibility of subjectively if my officials were to be alone.
Immediately after the high court order was made the Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters Cllrs opened a case against the Municipal Manager alleging that the procurement process was found irregular and as an Accounting Officer he must be convicted or account. The matter was transferred to HAWKS.
The HAWKS officers visited the relevant municipal officials from time to time to collect statements, records etc. The officials cooperated with them. It came as a surprise on Friday, 18 February 2022 that they came with their branded vehicles and the sirens just to demand documents relating to QFS RO plant. Without criticizing their operation, the timing of this search and the way it occurred raises some eyebrows to a layman.
The Director – Infrastructural Development appointment is about to be decided upon by council on Thursday, 24 February 2022 and this operation took place. However only HAWKS would have answers to that. It is only hoped that the matter will be dealt with once and for all.
To be noted is that QFS is contracted for 3 years to operate the plant and also train our staff to be able to keep the plant operational after the expiration of their contract.
The plant continues to have teething problems. It does not produce 2ML consistently due to river water quality. Again due to drought there is not enough sewerage water for reuse but it is hoped that soon the volumes of effluent will increase.
THE OFFICE OF THE MUNICIPAL MANAGER